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Education NewsWed, 16 Nov 2016 18:30:25 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.2MITx MicroMasters Program Maturing, Expandinghttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/mitx-micromasters-program-maturing-expanding/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/mitx-micromasters-program-maturing-expanding/#commentsFri, 23 Sep 2016 13:00:52 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=284875The MITx MicroMasters program first launched by MIT in 2015 allows online students to take master’s-level courses on the edX platform and then complete a master’s degree in one full semester on MIT’s campus. edX is now partnering with several other institutes, such as the University of Michigan and the Rochester Institute of Technology, to […]

The MITx MicroMasters program first launched by MIT in 2015 allows online students to take master’s-level courses on the edX platform and then complete a master’s degree in one full semester on MIT’s campus. edX is now partnering with several other institutes, such as the University of Michigan and the Rochester Institute of Technology, to expand the availability of online master’s degrees.

More than 127,000 students from over 189 countries have signed up for at least one course. In total, 13 more universities will be joining the leading online non-profit education experience. The universities will offer 18 new programs including artificial intelligence and project management.

In specific, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) wants to ensure that its students have the skills necessary to lead teams in any industry. Project management is an incredibly fast growing field that RIT hopes it will be at the forefront of with the new online course options:

Jeremy Haefner, RIT provost of Academic Affairs, said, “This is terrific opportunity for RIT to engage with edX’s more than 8 million learners and show how RIT can help them advance their careers. The MicroMasters program will allow those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to pursue an academic credential faster and at a reduced overall cost.”

For the University of Michigan, the edX program will add 20 more courses to the already large catalog of 92, notes Laurel Thomas Gnagey for Michigan News. Many of the courses are open and enrolling now while some will open in January. Michigan’s goal with the new MicroMasters courses is to make options available that other universities just don’t have yet.

James Hilton, University of Michigan’s vice provost for academic education, said, “What’s particularly exciting about these MicroMasters is that they highlight Michigan’s mission-based commitment to addressing the societal issues of today, and they do it in ways that take advantage of hybrid modes of discovery for global, residential and lifelong learners.”

Both edX programs and MicroMasters programs follow a similar path to completion. In both programs, there are five courses and a capstone exam that allow students to get a hands-on approach to coursework even though the classes are taken online.

Scott Bureau writes for University News that the importance of these programs is heightened in an ever-changing digital age. These courses are important for both the universities that host them and for the students that undertake their coursework through them. In an age where education doesn’t have to be classroom centered, it is becoming increasingly important to allow access to degrees and certifications in an online environment:

“We are proud to be a pioneer for higher education’s next step in engaging learners worldwide. Not all high-potential master’s candidates can afford to spend a year or more on campus, so it’s important to provide multiple pathways to a degree. MicroMasters gives learners the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities through a series of online courses, earn a valuable credential and, if they excel, complete their master’s with an additional semester’s residence,” says Sanjay Sarma, vice president for open learning at MIT.

The new options aren’t just opportunities for currently enrolled or new students, but are also for teachers and students who have already graduated.

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/mitx-micromasters-program-maturing-expanding/feed/0MIT, edX Extend Reach to 1.7 Million Online Studentshttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/mit-edx-extend-reach-to-1-7-million-online-students/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/mit-edx-extend-reach-to-1-7-million-online-students/#commentsMon, 22 Aug 2016 13:00:44 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=283105Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is not only challenging minds, but also the way education is accessed and taught — and it won’t cost you a penny. The university, in collaboration with Harvard, launched edX in 2012, which aims to enhance educational opportunities worldwide, increasing on-campus learning and furthering the reach of research by transporting […]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is not only challenging minds, but also the way education is accessed and taught — and it won’t cost you a penny.

The university, in collaboration with Harvard, launched edX in 2012, which aims to enhance educational opportunities worldwide, increasing on-campus learning and furthering the reach of research by transporting learning from the classroom directly to a person’s home through online courses.

The not-for-profit educational venture has been so successful that MIT has further developed 90 unique courses through edX, called MITx, which has around 1.7 millon individuals registered from over 200 countries.

Enrolment is free and courses mirror the structure and rigour of a regular class with assignments, discussions, due dates and teacher feedback through online forums and an array of interactive tools.

An official certificate of achievement is available for a fee.

MIT has also opened the door to humanities with the latest massive open online course (MOOC) offered by the Institute starting on 29 August 2016 focusing on philosophy, an area that has previously outperformed every other major on the GRE, writes the MIT Office of Digital Learning.

“[W]riting is essential to developing these skills… [J]ust answering multiple choice questions isn’t enough. You need to interact and bounce ideas off of other people. And from MIT’s perspective, the new feature helps bring to light different ideas from people with different cultural backgrounds. Writing enables these insights to pass through the community, which benefits everyone.”

To receive official certification for the course, students pay $300 to enroll within the ‘verified certificate’ program. However, if a certificate is not necessary, then participation in discussions and acquiring knowledge about the the way philosophers think about the world and understanding the evolution of human traits is free.

Hare states that one of the aims of the course is to “help participants think ‘philosophically’ themselves, in order to help them develop their “critical reasoning and argumentative skills more generally.”

A previous reviewer of the course expresses that the course was “pretty challenging and it took me a while to get into it. I am so grateful for this opportunity and feel that I have acquired a new skill.”

Staff at MIT can submit interest to facilitate a course and there are a number of grants available from MIT to encourage development.

The MIT Office of Digital Learning reports that the data collected from these courses is being gathered to develop a better understanding of the process of online learning. Researchers examine completion rates, how students utilize the resources available online and the success of the online learning environment itself.

To see a full list of courses available, readers can visit the edX website.

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/mit-edx-extend-reach-to-1-7-million-online-students/feed/0Imperial College London Launches MOOC MBA Serieshttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/imperial-college-london-launches-mooc-mba-series/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/imperial-college-london-launches-mooc-mba-series/#commentsFri, 12 Aug 2016 12:00:34 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=282555The Business School of Imperial College London has launched its first free series of MOOCs called Essentials for MBA Success. Focused on prospective students considering an MBA degree, the courses are accessible via edX, a non-profit online learning platform established by MIT and Harvard. The program starts on October 17 and is now open for enrollment. As […]

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Ina Krasteva

The Business School of Imperial College London has launched its first free series of MOOCs called Essentials for MBA Success. Focused on prospective students considering an MBA degree, the courses are accessible via edX, a non-profit online learning platform established by MIT and Harvard. The program starts on October 17 and is now open for enrollment.

Designed in a way to give students maximum flexibility in the learning process, the classes can be taken in order by choice. Therefore, learners can combine them with their work and family commitments. Each course represents a mixture of academic theories and real life practices, and interactive content and video exercises are available. Students may also benefit from an online tutor to guide them through the whole learning process.

Each class features leading academic staff from the Business School and combines a pro-active, social approach to learning with extensive multimedia. As noted by Education Dive, the courses also provide a personalized learning plan focusing on the areas that students need to improve to gain the base level of knowledge required to pass the core subjects on an MBA.

Dr. David Lefevre, Director of the Edtech Lab at Imperial College Business School, commented:

“As an active participant in the use of edtech and online programs, Imperial College Business School keenly recognizes the growing need for flexible learning programs that cater for people’s busy lifestyles. MBA programs, and business education generally, can change lives and through the edX partnership we are enabling more people from all over the world to access our renowned world leading expertise in business education.”

Anant Agarwal, MIT Professor and edX CEO, said it was an honor to welcome Imperial College to the edX family. He also pointed out that the excellent research expertise and world-class teaching of Imperial College share the edX goal to help students worldwide gain skills and knowledge to achieve success in their careers.

The newly-established partnership between Imperial College London and edX is just the beginning of a long-term collaboration, writes Johannes Heinlein on the edX blog. The College is planning to bring more courses to the online platform and to give students all around the world the opportunity to increase their knowledge and improve their lives.

Founded at the beginning of the 20th century, Imperial College London is one of the leading universities in the world. Currently, it has 16,000 students and nearly 8,000 academic staff. Imperial has a distinguished past, having pioneered penicillin and fiber optics, with its researchers working hard to improve health and wellbeing. The university works closely with the National Healthcare Service to improve healthcare in London, and it is among the leading partners in research and education of the European Union. It is also the UK’s leading research collaborator with China.

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Ina Krasteva

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/imperial-college-london-launches-mooc-mba-series/feed/0edX, Linux Foundation Partner for Cloud Computing Coursehttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/edx-linux-foundation-partner-for-cloud-computing-course/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/edx-linux-foundation-partner-for-cloud-computing-course/#commentsMon, 28 Mar 2016 12:00:05 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=275576EdX and the Linux Foundation have partnered to offer a free online course on cloud infrastructure. The massive open online course (MOOC) is called LFS151: An Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure Technologies, and it is now open for enrollment. The course is part of edX’s recently-announced effort to include more content from non-academic institutions. It will be restructuring its […]

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Jace Harr

EdX and the Linux Foundation have partnered to offer a free online course on cloud infrastructure.

The massive open online course (MOOC) is called LFS151: An Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure Technologies, and it is now open for enrollment.

The course is part of edX’s recently-announced effort to include more content from non-academic institutions. It will be restructuring its membership system to allow for the expansion, and new edX members, aside from additional universities, include the International Monetary Fund, Warren Buffet’s family foundation, and the Smithsonian.

The course is aimed at developers, sysadmins, and other professionals who need to understand the basics of cloud computing and DevOps software.

It includes 12 chapters and accompanying quizzes with a final exam at the completion of the course. Students can participate in the entire course for free, but a certificate to show successful completion costs $99. Previously, the Linux Foundation taught the same course for $2,500, reports Fred O’Connor of PC World.

The course covers next-generation cloud technology like Docker, CoreOS, Kubernetes, and OpenStack, as well as providing an overview of software-defined storage, networking solutions, and continuous integration best practices. The fundamentals of all cloud platforms, open source and otherwise, will be covered, reports Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of ZDNet.

The course is taught by Chip Childers and Neependra Khare. Childers is the vice president of technology at the Cloud Foundry Foundation, which is an open-source platform-as-a-service industry consortium, and an engineer with more than 15 years of experience.

Neependra Khare is the author of Docker Cookbook, and offers training and consulting services dealing with container technologies. He has more than a decade of experience in the IT industry in a variety of positions, reports the Linux Foundation.

Registration is open now, but the course will begin in June. The exact date has not yet been announced.

This is the second course that that the Linux Foundation has offered on the edX platform. The other was Intro to Linux, which has had more than 500,000 students participants from all over the world. According to the CEO of edX, MIT Professor Anant Agarwal, it’s one of the most popular edX courses of all time.

Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, said:

The response to our first edX course was powerful, demonstrating the understanding among students and early career professionals all over the world that open source is the pathway to a lucrative career in technology.

With Introduction to Cloud Infrastructure Technologies, anyone can begin learning the fundamentals of building and managing some of today’s most pervasive software, giving professionals a strong position in the IT talent market.

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Jace Harr

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/edx-linux-foundation-partner-for-cloud-computing-course/feed/0University of Michigan Announces First Slate of edX Courseshttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/university-of-michigan-announces-first-slate-of-edx-courses/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/university-of-michigan-announces-first-slate-of-edx-courses/#commentsMon, 21 Mar 2016 12:00:44 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=275243The University of Michigan’s Office of Digital Education and Innovation has announced its first online courses through the education platform edX. The four free courses will appear on the popular online education platform beginning in April. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, their subjects are Finance For Everyone: Smart Tools for Decision Making, Data Science […]

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Jace Harr

The University of Michigan’s Office of Digital Education and Innovation has announced its first online courses through the education platform edX.

The four free courses will appear on the popular online education platform beginning in April. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, their subjects are Finance For Everyone: Smart Tools for Decision Making, Data Science Ethics, Social Work: Meeting the Challenges of a New Era, and Practical Learning Analytics.

James DeVaney, the associate vice provost for digital education and innovation, said:

Our first four MichiganX MOOCs reflect our aspirations to make the resources of the university available to the broadest possible range of global learners. We have learned a great deal from out first 40 MOOCs and continue to seed faculty-led academic innovation aligned with our values of diversity, inclusion, and academic excellence.

Finance for Everyone: Smart Tools for Decision-Making, developed by finance professor Gautam Kaul, begins on April 5. The course was designed to be an accessible introduction to the subject, and has become one of the world’s most popular MOOCs. Topics include frameworks for financial decision-making, the basics of making sound decisions, and the concept of Time Value of Money. The recommended prerequisite is high school algebra.

Data Science Ethics, by electrical engineering and computer science professor H.V. Jagadash, begins May 1. Subjects covered include who owns data, how we value different aspects of privacy, how to get informed consent, and what it means to be fair. The course is designed to benefit everyone, and no prerequisites are necessary.

Social Work: Meeting the Challenges of a New Era, was created by Mary Ruffolo, Barbara Hiltz, and Katie-Richards-Schuster. The course, designed for potential Master’s students, begins July 1. Topics in this introductory course include core values of social workers, roles social workers perform, how to apply a social justice lens, and strategies social workers have found to be effective for creating change.

Practical Learning Analytics has already reached 3,000 students. It was created by professor of physics, astronomy, and education Tim McKay. Subjects covered include performance prediction in a course, how institutions are creating early warning systems, and how to apply learning analytics. The edX course starts July 1.

UM was one of the first universities to offer MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), and has reached more than 4 million learners through its online courses.

The university became a charter member of edX last October, and has also partnered with Coursera and NovoEd, according to the Associated Press.

EdX was founded in 2012 as a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. According to Alexandra Bahou of Fox 47 News, its catalog includes more than 650 courses. Each course is entirely free, with a small charge to receive a verified certificate of completion.

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Jace Harr

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/university-of-michigan-announces-first-slate-of-edx-courses/feed/0edX Course Promotes Religious Literacy Through MOOChttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/edx-course-promotes-religious-literacy-through-mooc/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/edx-course-promotes-religious-literacy-through-mooc/#commentsThu, 17 Mar 2016 12:00:59 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=275051Six prominent religion professors from Harvard University, Harvard Divinity School and Wellesley College have launched a free MOOC course about world religions that debuted March 1. The goal of the class is to parse out certain stereotypes in the society, to dispel myths, and to promote the idea that religious customs are diverse, complicated, and […]

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Ina Krasteva

Six prominent religion professors from Harvard University, Harvard Divinity School and Wellesley College have launched a free MOOC course about world religions that debuted March 1. The goal of the class is to parse out certain stereotypes in the society, to dispel myths, and to promote the idea that religious customs are diverse, complicated, and always evolving.

The course is offered via the online learning platform edX established by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012.

The edX course includes six classes on different topics that will run for a month each. The first one is on “Religious Literacy: Traditions and Scriptures” and is taught by Diane Moore, director of Harvard Divinity School’s Religious Literacy Project. The following five classes will cover religions including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism.

Students will also participate in weekly discussions through Google Hangouts. As a part of the HarvardX for Allston program, there will be an in-person component at the end of March. Along with the weekly Google Hangouts, the participants will have the possibility to take an online tour of a church in Jerusalem built on the site of Christ’s crucifixion.

For those who wish to earn a certificate of achievement at the end of the course, edX offers a paid non-audit track for $50. The participants will increase their religious literacy and will also learn in-depth about the history and contemporary interpretations of religious texts and why some of them are labeled as “sacred.”

“Religious literacy involves being able to look at a headline about November’s ISIS-led attacks in Paris or evangelical Christian support for Donald Trump and know that no single narrative or episode can encapsulate an entire religion.”

The same survey also found out that non-believers and atheists achieved higher results than people of faith on the religious knowledge questionnaire used in Pew study. It is partly because on average they had more advanced education than members of faith communities. Non-believers answered correctly on 20.9 questions out of 32, compared to 20.5 for Jews, 20.3 for Mormons, 17.6 for white evangelical Protestants and 15.8 for white Protestants, Pew confirmed.

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Ina Krasteva

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/edx-course-promotes-religious-literacy-through-mooc/feed/0SKILLSdox, edX Team Up to Boost Workforce in Indiahttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/skillsdox-edx-team-up-to-boost-workforce-in-india/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/skillsdox-edx-team-up-to-boost-workforce-in-india/#commentsThu, 10 Mar 2016 13:00:43 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=274809Canadian company SKILLSdox is partnering with online MOOC provider edX to make use of SKILLSdox’s online Indian education gateway and marketplace “School of Skill” for edX to students across India. The agreement between the two companies came as an effort to expand upon edX’s offerings in early 2016 from top university partners across the increasingly large […]

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Kristin Decarr

Canadian company SKILLSdox is partnering with online MOOC provider edX to make use of SKILLSdox’s online Indian education gateway and marketplace “School of Skill” for edX to students across India.

The agreement between the two companies came as an effort to expand upon edX’s offerings in early 2016 from top university partners across the increasingly large population within India, as over half of the 1.2 billion population within the country will be of school and college-going age by 2030. India is considered to be the world’s second largest internet user base.

“We are delighted to work with SKILLSdox to provide education to learners across India,” said Anant Agarwal, edX CEO and MIT professor. “India is our second largest market for learners after the US, and we know that skills and career-focused courses are extremely important to these learners. Through SKILLSdox and edX, many more learners across India will have an opportunity to improve their job prospects and their lives.”

SKILLSdox recently finished a $30 million investment from BCCL, the largest media conglomerate in India. Doing so, the company said, would support the marketing of online education to close to 80% of India’s total population through TV, radio, digital, newspaper, and billboards.

Foreign education companies are unable to legally place their products in the country unless they collaborate with or sell through an Indian company.

SKILLSdox has already partnered with educational online content providers in Canada, the US, Ireland, Taiwan, and India. In order to ensure they are able to offer an education to all users, the company said they have also partnered with DataWind, an Indian company that provides low-cost tablets that come with free internet access on their devices.

“Now people who could previously not afford to buy the technology, afford the internet, and otherwise would not have had access to global education, will, with us and our partners,” says Canadian entrepreneur Brad Loiselle.

Payments can be received by the company in 200 formats, now including the rupee.

Loiselle said the goal is to become a household name in India, which he says will allow the company to take the model and use it in other emerging markets, reports Ambika Behal for Forbes.

India is believed to be one of the fastest growing emerging markets and as such, the country is facing a number of challenges, including a lack of skilled resources. In an effort to find a solution to the problem of there not being enough qualified teachers in the country, the Minister of Finance created the National Skills Development Council, which focuses on closing the education gaps and skills shortages. The mandates put in place by Prime Minister Modi including 500 million people becoming skilled workers by 2022 in addition to the digitization of the entire country.

Just 2% of the country are currently considered to be included in the skilled workforce, causing education to be one of the most important issues to be taken up by the government to increase the skills held by workers across all sectors.

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Kristin Decarr

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/skillsdox-edx-team-up-to-boost-workforce-in-india/feed/0MOOCs Maturing, But Still Falling Short, Study Suggestshttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/moocs-maturing-but-still-falling-short-study-suggests/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/moocs-maturing-but-still-falling-short-study-suggests/#commentsThu, 18 Feb 2016 15:00:46 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=273756A recently released study has taken a closer look at the quality of massive, open, online courses (MOOCs) and offered basic insights on the practice of creating these courses. The study, “In Search of Quality: Using Quality Matters to Analyze the Quality of Massive, Open, Online Courses (MOOCs),” looks at the MOOC, which the authors say has become […]

While MOOCs are all open online courses, they can differ in a number of ways, including size, where one course may have hundreds of students and another thousands. Degrees of openness can differ as well, with some courses having limited enrollment. Most are not offered for college credit, although there has recently been a push to do so, and while some MOOCs are taught by well-recognized instructors, others are less personality-driven and focus more on the learners.

But the study finds the one constant between all MOOCs to be low completion rates. Despite the increasingly high numbers of individuals signing up to participate in these courses, sometimes reaching into the tens of thousands, less than 10% seem to actually finish courses. However, some argue that this information is misleading, and MOOCs continue to draw people in with their promise of a free or low-cost education to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Critics of the movement continue to question the meaningfulness and effectiveness of these courses as a means of providing a high-quality education. The authors suggest that in order for MOOCs to continue to be a viable option, they must be proven to meet the same quality standards that traditional courses are held to.

Finding that little research had previously been done in this area, the authors decided to investigate the design of the courses.

Using the Quality Matters framework, which holds the courses to eight standards, including learning objectives, materials, learner interaction, technology, and accessibility, among others, the authors found that none of the six MOOCs they looked at on the various platforms passed the review. However, while one Coursera MOOC and one edX MOOC did score highly overall, the Udacity courses, which are self-paced courses offered all year, performed the worst.

Overall, all six courses examined failed to meet several of the standards, including having measurable learning objectives, clearly outlining accessibility policies, clearly outlining the extra resources available to help students succeed, and outlining student support services.

The authors stressed that they only looked at six MOOCs overall, and therefore the results cannot be generalized to include all such courses, adding that a larger sample size would be necessary to better determine such results. However, they do say their results can be used to suggest a few conclusions, such as that MOOCs can provide a quality learning experience. They say not all MOOCs are designed the same way and therefore some provide a different learning experience, but they all seem to have a similar instructional approach that focuses on the use of videos, readings, and quizzes.

“Each of us, as responsible open and distance educators, is compelled to examine the affordances and challenges of MOOC development and delivery methods, critically examine their effect on public education and perhaps most importantly insure that our own educational systems are making the most effective use of these very disruptive technologies.”

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Kristin Decarr

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/moocs-maturing-but-still-falling-short-study-suggests/feed/0India’s Bennett University, edX Team Up for Online Courseshttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/indias-bennett-university-edx-team-up-for-online-courses/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/indias-bennett-university-edx-team-up-for-online-courses/#commentsThu, 21 Jan 2016 15:00:37 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=272385India’s Bennett University and online education platform edX have signed an agreement for edX to be the worldwide provider of the University’s first online courses. Bennett University, a Times Group organization, will work with edX to create a blended curriculum for its students. Bennett University announced the collaborative effort with edX, part of which will be the creation […]

India’s Bennett University and online education platform edX have signed an agreement for edX to be the worldwide provider of the University’s first online courses. Bennett University, a Times Group organization, will work with edX to create a blended curriculum for its students.

Bennett University announced the collaborative effort with edX, part of which will be the creation and hosting of online courses on edX taught by Bennett University faculty. edX will provide the required technological infrastructure including private cohorts for the realization of the MOOCs. Vineet Jain, the Managing Director of Bennett University, expressed his optimism that the partnership will be beneficial for all Bennett University learners, The Economic Times reports. He explained:

“This is a milestone in the Indian education forum and I firmly believe the association with edX will assist graduating students to be industry ready from day one.”

Anant Agarwal, CEO of edX and an MIT professor, highlighted the importance of the Indian education market and the fact that the collaboration will make higher education learning accessible to more learners, reports Business Standard.

“We are delighted with this synergetic association with Bennett University. We are certain that with the lineage of the Times Group, Bennett University will be instrumental in extending learning opportunities to learners who lack access to education and high quality resources.”

At the agreement’s signing, Agarwal and Jain confirmed that India has to improve its education standards to align with international benchmarks. Bennett University aims to implement a blended classroom model in which students will be required to watch edX video tutorials before attending classes and use in-class time to put into practice the knowledge and skills studied earlier, The Times of India says.

“We want to create a new kind of university that is unparalleled. A university without borders, a university that blends online learning and on-campus experience and gets the best of both.” Anant Agarwal the edX CEO claimed.

With only 8 to 15 percent of the classes taking place online, the rest of the learning time will be dedicated to classroom-based activities that can advance students’ learning.

Bennett University will accept its first students in the summer of 2016. According to the managing director of Bennett University, the collaboration with edX will offer faculty the training and support they need to be able to offer online and offline teaching to their undergraduate and postgraduate students. Faculty will be able to use the edX platform to design and develop their own classes as well.

Dr. Yaj Medury, the Vice Chancellor at Bennett, said the University will encourage students to take edX courses created by other educational institutions such as MIT, Harvard, UT and Berkeley, and then take the online exams to earn credit that will count toward their own Bennett University degree.

The institution kicks off classes in July with two courses of study: an MBA track and undergraduate degrees in Computer Science Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. The school guarantees that the 2018 MBA class will be offered a Times of India Group job.

]]>http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/indias-bennett-university-edx-team-up-for-online-courses/feed/0MOOCs Enter 2016 With More Users, Courses and Credentialshttp://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/moocs-enter-2016-with-more-users-courses-and-credentials/
http://www.educationnews.org/online-schools/moocs-enter-2016-with-more-users-courses-and-credentials/#commentsMon, 04 Jan 2016 14:00:04 +0000http://www.educationnews.org/?p=271483Massive open online course (MOOCs) numbers continue to increase, with more people signing up for the courses in 2015 than they did in the first three years the courses were offered combined. The number of students enrolled in the courses doubled this year according to data collected from Class Central, with the number of students […]

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Kristin Decarr

Massive open online course (MOOCs) numbers continue to increase, with more people signing up for the courses in 2015 than they did in the first three years the courses were offered combined.

The number of students enrolled in the courses doubled this year according to data collected from Class Central, with the number of students signing up for at least one course topping 35 million, up from the estimated 17 million who participated in a MOOC last year.

While Coursera claimed more students had signed up for their courses last year than Udacity, edX, and all other MOOC providers combined, they took in slightly less than half of all students this year. However, UK-based FutureLearn, owned by the Open University, is currently increasing in size from a user base of 800,000 in 2014 to almost 3 million students this year.

In all, 1,800 new courses were created in 2015, bringing the total number of courses offered through over 550 universities to 4,200.

Much of the recent growth was seen in delivering skills that are currently in-demand in technology and business as the focus on monetization increases, with Computer Science and Programming courses growing more than 10% this year. At the same time, a decrease in humanities and social science courses has been observed.

In terms of providers, Coursera, edX and the Canvas are still at the top of the list. Coursera came in first with 35.6% of course distribution, edX in second place with 18.1%, and with 6.92%, Canvas rounded out the top 3. Kadenze, a MOOC platform for arts education, was the only newly launched provider for 2015, writes Dhawal Shah for Class Central.

Meanwhile, the share of English language courses has dropped from 80% in 2014 to 75% in 2015. This could be due to a few reasons, including the expansion of overseas institutions, such as France Université Numérique and MiriadaX, offering MOOCs in their local languages. Spanish and French are the next two most popular languages for course offerings, although across the world courses are offered in 16 different languages including Basque and Estonian.

MOOC providers have also begun to create their own credentials, such as Udacity’sNanodegrees, Coursera’s Specializations, and edX’s Xseries. In some cases, such as with Coursera and Udacity, the credentials have become a main source of revenue. There are currently over 100 credentials available from MOOC providers.

At the same time, edX has chosen to place its focus on ways to offer students the opportunity to earn credit through courses. A partnership with Arizona State University created the Global Freshman Academy earlier in the year. The company has also partnered institutions to give credit, allowing students to earn credit at such schools as American Council on Education, Charter Oak State College, and MIT.

As a result of a need for sustainable revenue, certificates now come at a cost, with the average cost of a Coursera certificate coming in at $56 and $53 for edX.

In general, MOOCs are moving away from being merely a catalog of free courses and more toward offering intentional direction and practical outcomes, with the “Big Three” providers focusing more on making credentials matter.